Activists seek release of detainees before they are transferred
Now that the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office has ended its jail contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, activists who pressured officials to end the partnership are calling on them to release the 169 detainees at the West County Detention Facility before they’re transferred out of the region.
Civil rights activists from across the Bay Area — concerned that many detainees may be jailed in facilities far away from their families and lawyers — are calling on ICE to speed up their cases and to release eligible detainees on bond. But whether ICE will clear their cases seems unlikely.
“For people who are detained, they need to be near their families, their support network,” said Van Nguyen, a member of the Contra Costa County Immigrant Rights Alliance. “A lot of these community members might be struggling with resources and it makes it even more challenging and difficult for them to stay connected (if they’re moved
away.)”
The alliance started a community fund to raise bond money and to help family members with transportation to the facility. As of Friday, the coalition had raised more than $2,500.
“ICE has the ability to release these people,” said Nguyen.
When Contra Costa County Sheriff David Livingston on Tuesday announced his department is ending its contract with ICE, the immigration agency pledged to resolve as many pending cases as possible during the next 120 days. How exactly that’ll
play out remains unclear.
ICE on Friday hinted that detainees — suspected of violating U.S. immigration law and held at the jail as their cases are pending — will be transferred elsewhere.
“The Contra Costa sheriff’s decision to no longer house ICE detainees at the West County Detention Facility will negatively impact local ICE operations; however, the impact will be greater for those who would have been detained at the facility,” said spokeswoman Lori Haley in a statement.
“Now, instead of being housed close to family members or local attorneys, ICE may have to depend on its national system of detention bed space to place those detainees in locations
farther away reducing the opportunities for in-person family visitation and attorney coordination.”
Haley didn’t answer questions about whether ICE plans to speed up certain cases or if it plans to release certain detainees on bond. She also didn’t say where exactly detainees would go if they’re transferred.
Anna Tutckaia’s husband Alexey Kharis has been detained at the West County facility for nearly 11 months.
“There are so many unknowns,” she said in a statement. She and her husband fled Russia in 2016 with their two kids and petitioned for asylum in the U.S., claiming persecution by the Russian government. When Kharis reported
to the Department of Homeland Security office in San Francisco last year, they arrested him and denied bond.
“We hope that this could be an opportunity for him and others to be released on bond or another alternative to detention,” Tutckaia said.
With Sacramento County also ending its contract with ICE last month, the closest facility where undocumented immigrants can be detained would be the Yuba County jail in Marysville.
“This is clearly one of those areas where there is no local control over how quickly the hearings occur or whether ICE releases individuals on a bond,” said Supervisor John Gioia Friday, whose district includes
West County. “However, the local angle is continuing to allow lawyers to have free access to their clients and to increase access to those who are not currently represented.”
Contra Costa County Sheriff spokesman Jimmy Lee said the department only houses the detainees and isn’t involved in their cases. Livingston is working with the Custody Services Bureau to expand attorney screenings, he said, in which immigration attorneys make visits to the jail to “screen” detainees who may need legal representation.
“Our goal is to have as many detainees represented by counsel as possible as we begin the orderly transition,” Lee said.
Livingston cited many reasons for the decision but admitted fervent community activism played an important factor. In recent weeks, dozens — at times hundreds — of people protested outside the facility against the separation of families.
“To be very fair, one has to acknowledge a growing chorus of individuals within and outside the country that have focused on undocumented immigrant issues,” Livingston said.
Those protests made a difference, said Goia.
“That energy will also be directed at changing ICE detention policy and that’s really important,” he said. “That protest can’t end with just the ending of the ICE contract.”